Ken Johnson, a former Daily Breeze news editor who later served as deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors, died Wednesday. He was 74.

“He was a fantastic person, full of life,” said Dusty Crane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Beaches and Harbors, where Johnson worked from the early 1970s through his retirement in October 2000.

Johnson leaves behind five children and a large number of South Bay friends who recalled his penchant for living “big” and his enduring passion for UCLA Bruin sports. He was sometimes known to do the unexpected – like the year he rounded up a volunteer crew at a local bar, heading over to the Salvation Army to cook and deliver hot Thanksgiving Day meals to shut-ins.

“He was always known as `Big Ken,”‘ said Jay Berman who joined the Breeze staff in 1961 when Johnson was city editor. They were both in their early 20s.

“He was 6 feet tall and kind of heavyset. … He was scary to work for at first and for the first couple days I kept calling him `Mr. Johnson,’ even though he was only three years older than I was.”

The two became close, lifelong friends, with Johnson standing in as Berman’s best man at his 1978 wedding.

“His news judgment was astonishing,” Berman said, recalling how Johnson coordinated the newspaper’s local coverage on the day in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was shot.

Jim Box, who bacame the Daily Breeze city editor around the time Johnson left to work for county Supervisor Burton Chace, remembered his introduction to his predecessor.

“Ken came walking in and tossed this envelope full of press releases from Supervisor Burton Chace into the basket,” said Box, who retired from the Daily Breeze as executive editor in 2001. “He said, `Hi, I’m Ken Johnson. Want to go get a drink?’

“He was a big man with a big personality and for some reason we just hit it off from the beginning.”

When Box landed in a Tennessee hospital for two months in the late 1960s after a car accident in what was his native state, Johnson sent get-well cards every day. He even arranged to have one signed by Dewey “The Swamp Rat” Warren, quarterback for the University of Tennessee football team.

Born Oct. 1, 1936, in Los Angeles, Johnson graduated from Marshall High School in 1954 and attended Los Angeles City College.

After a stint with the Culver City Star News, Johnson came to work for the Daily Breeze in 1959, moving up the ranks to serve as sports editor, city editor and news editor before leaving in June 1966.

“He carved out a good career with the county, but you could always tell he still had a spot in him that wished he would have stayed in the newspaper business,” Box said.

His news skills came in handy at the Department of Beaches and Harbors, Crane said.

“He was someone the department could turn to when it needed someone to handle that tough situation or get out a press release,” she said.

During his almost 50 years living and working in the South Bay – Johnson moved to Crestline 10 years ago after his retirement – he helped start the South Bay Athletic Club luncheons and served two elected terms on the Beach Cities Health District.

Johnson lived primarily in Redondo Beach and Torrance and wrote a city-commissioned book on Redondo Beach history – “Fun, Frustration and Fulfillment: An Historical Study of the City of Redondo Beach” – in 1965.

Johnson was especially proud of his children. Among his sons and daughters are the dean of a law school, an advertising executive for ABC, and a 20-year career Navy veteran.

His retirement in Crestline gave him time to enjoy what had become his favorite pastime – fishing.

“Even when he lived down here, he’d just take a day of leave or personal time to go off fishing by himself,” Box said. “Ken was a very gregarious person, but he liked the solitude and peacefulness of it.”

Although Johnson had experienced some health challenges in the past three years, news of his death at home Wednesday morning came as a shock to longtime friends.

“He was a big, gruff kind of loud guy in many ways,” Box said. “But once you became a friend of his, he was a good friend for many, many years.”

Johnson is survived by four sons, Kevin of Davis, Calif., Michael of Texas, Eric of New York and Rob of Redondo Beach; a daughter, Tammy Watsek of San Juan Capistrano; and 13 grandchildren.

At his request, no funeral will be held. But friends are planning a reception in the next several weeks “to tell Ken Johnson stories,” his son Kevin said.

Condolences can be left at krjohnson@ucdavis.edu and memorial reception information will be available at the same address.

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.